Over 100,000 Fishers Die Every Year, Says Safety Foundation Study

Fishing boats set sail for the East China Sea from a port in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China, on Aug. 1, 2021. (Chen Yongjian/VCG via Getty Images)

More than four times as many fishing-related deaths take place globally every year than earlier estimates, according to a new study conducted by the FISH Safety Foundation (FSF).

In 1987, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that around 24,000 fatalities took place in the fishing industry annually. In 1999, the International Labor Organization (ILO) published a study confirming this number. The FSF study, commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts, found that more than 100,000 fishers die every year, more than four times what the FAO and ILO calculated decades ago. This comes to around 300 deaths per day.

The report found several factors contributing to such high fisher mortality, including geopolitical conflict, overfishing, poverty, climate change, as well as illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In fact, IUU was found to be a significant driver of deaths.

As industrial illegal operators ignore safety rules and cut corners to net a big catch, the small-scale fishers also end up taking part in dangerous, unregulated activities, even as it becomes more difficult to catch fish. The death poll disproportionately affected low-income fishers.

“While fishing can be inherently risky, the harsh reality is that many of these deaths were and are avoidable,” said Peter Horn, a project director with Pew’s international fisheries project, according to a press release on Nov. 3

“With 3 billion people reliant on seafood and the demand expected to rise, stronger policies are urgently needed to keep fishers safe, including ones that address the true drivers of these deaths.”

Pew called for urgent action to ensure the safety of those employed in the fishing industry. It recommended providing financial support to low-income communities as well as boosting data collection and information sharing to better understand the problems faced by fishers.

Dangerous Working Conditions and Exploitation

Fishing has become increasingly risky, as fishers have to travel farther away from their usual sites to catch fish. In some cases, fishers are subject to brutal conditions by fleet owners.

For instance, back in 2020, a South Korean broadcaster revealed a report of alleged abuse of Indonesian fishers aboard fishing ships owned by a Chinese company.

The fishers were given substandard food and possibly dangerous drinking water. They were forced to work excessively, and some of them were subjected to beatings. Three Indonesian workers were reportedly thrown into the sea after their deaths.

In Thailand, an ILO survey from 2013 had put the proportion of forced labor in fishing at 17 percent, a number that was revised to 14 percent based on a later 2019 survey.

In Myanmar, home to one of the most hazardous fishing operations, men are recruited as fishers annually to stay aboard small bamboo platforms off the coast to catch fish.

If supply boats fail to visit them often, these men have to make ends meet with little food and fresh water. Some of them end up health issues, such as tuberculosis, vitamin B deficiency, and burst arteries.